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No – Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines are not gene therapies

By Joshua Cohen

The development and approval of coronavirus mRNA vaccines has been a miracle. According to a recent study by the Commonwealth Fund, if it were not for vaccines, we would have an additional 1.1 million deaths from covid-19 in the US and another 10.3 million hospitalizations by last November.

Vaccines have saved lives and prevented serious illnesses, with relatively few side effects so far. However, “cryptocurrency” groups of vaccinators insist on considering mRNA vaccines as “experimental gene therapies”.

No. Vaccines that use mRNA technology are not gene therapies because they do not change our genes.

Pfizer – in collaboration with BioNTech – and Moderna have developed vaccines that use part of the SARS-CoV-2 genetic code, covid-19 coronavirus, to create an immune response in vaccine recipients. However, these vaccines are not gene therapies.

What is gene therapy?

Gene therapy can be described as the recombination of nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) to treat a disease or an underlying genetic disorder. In gene therapy, the damaged gene is replaced with a healthy one. In order to cure the patient or to treat his condition, the genetic material is modified.

This is accomplished in a number of ways: the gene that is diseased is either replaced by a healthy one or “inactivated”, or a new gene can be introduced into the body.

Thus, if one suffers from a disease caused by the mutation of a structural protein in a gene – such as hemophilia, cystic fibrosis and retinopathy of pigmentation – then gene therapy can be applied through DNA that will “read” the correct copy of the mutant protein.

DNA can remain in a patient’s cells for a long time, suggesting that a single gene therapy could bring chronic therapeutic benefits. This is why some gene therapies are considered “one-off procedures”.

What about mRNA vaccines

On the other hand, mRNA vaccines do not enter the nucleus of the cell where the DNA resides. These vaccines do not integrate into the human genome and do not alter our genetic material. These are treatments that are based on genetics, but do not alter the genetic material of humans. Using a set of transport instructions, mRNA vaccines teach our cells how to produce the protein that will trigger an immune response to the virus.

Under ideal conditions, antibodies protect us from infection once the virus enters the body. However, we have found that coronavirus vaccines are not as effective at limiting transmission as they are at preventing serious illness.

MRNA vaccines may be genetically based, as they use genetic material from covid-19, but they are not gene therapies and only stay in our bodies for a few days.

Moderna, which developed one of the two mRNA vaccines available to us so far, explained in a newsletter that mRNA and gene therapy follow “completely different” approaches: “Gene therapy and gene processing alter the genetic information that “In this case, the goal is to permanently cure the genetic disorder by replacing the damaged gene.” In contrast, “mRNA technology does not modify the genetic information of the cell.”

To answer the question of whether mRNA vaccines against coronavirus will have long-term side effects, the scientific community needs to study the data it has at its disposal at all times. At present, this cannot be ruled out. However, there is growing evidence that these vaccines will not cause long-term harm.

Although coronavirus vaccines have been developed recently, mRNA technology has been tested in humans in the past: clinical trials with mRNA vaccines have been performed against HIV, rabies, Zika virus, and influenza. Vaccines have been tested for safety and side effects in numerous Phase 1 and 2 clinical trials.

However, as with any new technology, it is reasonable for people to raise questions and concerns about possible long-term side effects of mRNA vaccines. The paradox is that the same people do not worry about the unknown long-term side effects of the coronavirus – among other things, the possible damage to their vital organs.

Read also:

* Israel: 4th dose of coronavirus vaccine increases antibodies fivefold

* A new variant of the coronavirus was detected in France, the IHU

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Source: Forbes

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